Nigeria: Time Well Wasted!

Habu Dauda Fika

There is now a new clamour for new and hopefully relevant political group blossoming under the usual acronyms like MDD, MRD, and so on. The people that are pushing these new political franchises are the same ones that have dominated the power structure in our 40 years of many failed attempts. However, it seems to me that there is one question, which has never been asked nor answered. If the intent of all this new groups is to ensure that everyone respect the constitution without changing it to their benefits, then why are these people not in the Senate? There will always be only one president, but there are 100 plus senators who can control the actions of that president. Forming MRD or MDD is not a solution to the problems of a dictatorial executive. In 1999, we knew that every candidate for the office was an unknown as far as how they will perform if elected. We now know how Obasanjo will govern. We also know that he probably wants to keep the office for a bit longer. The reason he is even contemplating this move is because there is no vibrant and effective opposition. The system we are playing with is one, which only acknowledges opposition from within. For those clamorers to achieve the objective of keeping the executive true to their oath of office, they must re-draw the game plan. The legislature’s most important function is to check and balance the powers of the executive. Thus, the call must go out to all those clamoring for a new party - to stop the excesses of the current executive - to please ready their supporters and run for the Senatorial offices in their respective jurisdiction. Nigeria will not know a dictatorial president if all the people who are on the outside fighting OBJ move into the senate chamber. The question then is why are they not in the senate? Why is Odumegwu Ojukwu, Gani Fawehinmi, Olu Falae, Alex Ekwueme, Yakubu Gowon, Sunday Awoniyi, Ibrahim Babangida, Balarabe Musa, Abubakar Rimi, Adamu Chiroma, Audu Ogbeh, Abubakar Umar, Buba Marwa, Ghali Na’abba and even Muhammadu Buhari (the singular vocal opposition from the ANPP) not in the senate? My guess is probably because nobody in politics likes to plan ahead for the good of the system and Nigeria. The senate can and should be the breeding ground for our presidential aspirants, as we ll as duly perform the responsibility of countering the excesses of the executive.

The constitution has delegated separate but equal power to three branches; unfortunately, the executive has effervesced the judiciary and the legislature into submission primarily because they are less than independent. With the executive doing as it pleases with the treasury, strength for the two disadvantage branches will only come from people inside the system who can devise ways to balance the playing field for all three branches. Obasanjo will not be thinking about a third term today if he thought for a moment that the National Assembly can muster one iota of independent thought and actio n. Political greed has made the National Assembly a collection of hungry money mongers no better than the 419 con artists. What Nigeria needs in the Senate chamber is a collection of men and women who have very normal and/or few needs, combined with a strong desire to improve the lives of all Nigerians. People like that can change the dynamics of our current politics and move Nigeria forward. It is high time the Senate chamber was filled with people of 'the high road' politics who have little need for the Naira. A tall order to fill of course but we must get our few good men to start thinking about where they can make a difference rather than shouting at the top of their voices to an empty coliseum. We have to cure ourselves from this disease of “sha yanzu magani yanzu” and begin to look into the future; our politicians must realize that Nigeria will not end in 2007 despite all the doomsayers and naysayers.

In many other developed democracies, you will find that most politicians work their way from the local, to the state, to the National stages. In Nigeria we want to do it overnight. It takes work to become a leader. Obasanjo is the exception not the rule. The day will come in Nigeria when you cannot buy your way in. Those who do the work will eventually be rewarded. May be then, our politicians will know communiqué’s like the following (see tabbed paragraph below), only confirm their greed. But most undoubtedly, they do not speak for most good and decent Nigerians who have never received any benefit from the stupendous oil wealth that we continue to fight over but only the insignificant select few manage to keep to themselves.

“The Conference demands that the process of Constitutional Amendment/Reform must commence and be concluded and effected prior to the 2007 elections, failing which the South shall boycott the 2007 elections and consider the reconstitution of the country as a confederation on the basis of the six geo-political zones, with each zone retaining its resources and contributing to the centre on the basis of an agreed principle, failure of which the South shall stop forthwith resources derived from its geo-political zone.”

This kind of posturing by our politicians is dangerous to our ongoing experiment with democratic ideals. It is careless for the most educated and most powerful in our midst to make statements like this. I hope the rest of the country does follow suit. We are blessed (afflicted if you wish) with the now common ailment known as the ‘short-attention span’ syndrome. This affliction is not peculiar to any region since the symptoms are rampant all over Nigeria, but it is safe to say that the South-south leadership is showing the most pronounced cases of this malady. The North by majority voted for Obasanjo in 1999 and fail ed to stop the rigging of 2003. Today he is trying to use the South-south to perpetuate his rule. If one region elected Obasanjo, then surely it stands to reason that it can either keep him or vote him out. All any region needs to do to choose a leader is to defend the integrity of the ballot box. Common sense does tell us though that no singular region can elect the president. Only a combination of zones can elect a leader for the country. Thus the recent posturing is nothing but the greedy play of the same actors who have claimed sole ownership of Nigeria. Of course some of it might be the growing pain of learning how to walk this talk of democracy, since we have been crawling for almost seven years now. Still Nigerians deserve better representation at all strata of the political terrain. As for the resources mentioned in the communiqué, let me just say most of the people I know, do not care about the portioning of the wealth between the federal government and the states since i t does not change their lives by a penny(140 Kobos) a day. So there is no need to threaten us all, over money or benefit that has never accrued to us anyway. Do not expect us to say “you are right” just because your stolen share is smaller than the rest of the kleptocrats!

If you want to be the president or your region wants to produce the next president, then go out and campaign for it – do not threaten anyone to 'elect you or else'. The current occupant of the office is doing that very well already! We are all eventually going to have to vote for the office of the president. My vote is going to go to the best candidate for Nigeria!! We should all see to it that our votes are counted for the right person. In the meantime, will the politicians please stop wasti ng our time over issues that has more to do with their pockets than our stomachs!!

Habu Dauda Fika – webmaster www.AmanaOnline.com - writes from Washington DC